Raven
“Azarath Metrion...ZINTHOS!” — Raven's usual magic spell Raven is a half-demon, half-Azarathian hybrid who is one of five founding members of theTeen Titans. Character History Arella, Raven's mother, was chosen to become the bride of the demonic Trigon. Abandoned by the demon rather than her becoming his queen, Arella was bent on suicide when she was taken in by the pacifistic disciples of Temple Azarath, a group who had centuries earlier forsaken life on Earth to pursue their own nonviolent lifestyle. In their inter-dimensional world, Raven, Arella's daughter by Trigon, was born. Fearing that the child would bring evil among them, Juris, a magistrate of Azarath, attempted to cast the infant Raven into Limbo, only to be destroyed himself. Azar, the spiritual leader of the temple, then took the young Raven under her personal tutelage, instructing her in the truth of her parentage, and in pacifism, meditation, and the submergence of her emotions to resist Trigon's influence, while perfecting her powers of teleportation, astral projection, and empathic healing. Later, after Azar's death (in which she entered another plane of existence), when Raven was plagued by prophetic dreams of Trigon and, defying her teachers, she confronted her demon father in Limbo at his bidding. Trigon spared her and Arella after satisfying himself that, upon his return when she reached adulthood, he could seduce Raven into becoming his ally. When Raven turned fourteen, she sensed Trigon's power returning and fled to Earth. She arrived at Jump City, where she met several super-powered youths fighting a rampaging alien girl. Raven managed to discern the girl's true reason for her demolition work and convinced the others into a more peaceful approach, which won them the alien's friendship. Despite Raven's obvious insecurity, the others invited her to join them in defeating the truly hostile aliens—the Gordanians, who had attempted to enslave the girl—and her presence proved ultimately essential to the motley crew's triumph over the Gordanians. Afterwards, the group decided to stay together and formed the original Teen Titans. Though Raven, still feeling alienated from her new friends, remained distant to them, the other Titans soon came to learn more about her origins. First, Beast Boy and Cyborg inadvertently ended up stranded inside Raven's own mind, where they met the personifications of her separated emotional aspects and also encountered and fought the manifestation of Trigon's heritage inside her. Soon afterward, a backfired plot by the Puppet King left Raven and Starfire stuck in each other's body, creating a new sense of empathy between the girls. Finally, when Robin was haunted by a drug-induced hallucination of his enemy Slade, Raven linked with his mind and saw glimpses of Robin's past, including his initiation by Batman and the death of his parents. Raven helped the Titans for years, working alongside the other four to protect Jump City from villainous menaces. She was consistently invaluable to their success. Eventually, however, Raven's past caught up with her: On her birthday, Slade (who had been presumed dead) reappeared, wielding new powers and marked with a symbol which Raven could not fail to recognize. Slade deliberately led the Titans to the place where Raven's true destiny was to be fulfilled to serve as a living portal for Trigon to conquer Earth. Seeing no other choice, Raven finally told her teammates the truth about her past — but instead of being rejected, the other Titans remained with her and took the greatest pains to prevent this from happening. Slade and an army of Trigon's fire demons attacked Titans Tower to fetch Raven. The Titans decided to fight him, but Raven, unwilling to see her dearest friends hurt on her behalf, knocked them out of the fight and secretly imbued them with some of her powers to protect them from the apocalypse to come. When the portal was opened with her powers, Raven was apparently consumed, but in fact her human half remained alive in Trigon's domain, regressed to childhood and left powerless. Left in a world turned into a living horror, the Titans still refused to give up without a fight. With some help from Slade, (who had been betrayed by Trigon) Robin made his way to Trigon's underworld, found Raven and took her back to the surface, even though she was spiritually shattered by her role in the shaping of events. Finally, the Titans and Slade faced Trigon in a final onslaught. But even as they were struck down, Raven realized that all was not hopeless, and this realization sparked a new hope within her soul, allowing her to regain full maturity along with her powers. Under a righteous wrath, she used the sum of her powers to destroy Trigon, reverting Earth back to the way it was and finally ridding herself from the last vestiges of her dreaded heritage. Physical Appearance Raven's appearance is seen as dark and mysterious throughout the series. Her superhero outfit is mostly made up of her favorite color, dark blue/indigo. She usually wears a blue cloak with a hood, with matching blue ruffled ankle-boots with black/gray soles, with a leotard-like long-sleeved shirt that is blue/black with cuffs at her wrists of the same blue of her cloak. On her cloak, she has a circular black/red jewel set in a gold plate that attaches the whole thing together; it covers her T-communicator and it's fixed to beep/glow when there is trouble as seen in some episodes. The jewel also sometimes has a raven head shape in the jewel. Around her waist she has a red and gold belt with the same jewels around it and no pants. the belt ties at the back like a cord. Her hair and eyes are violet, and as seen in the episode Birthmark, Raven cuts off the extra hair that she had grown. In Switched, Raven despises Starfire's long hair, which may conclude she likes to keep it short. On her forehead, she has a red and black bindi, that she was born with. She is seen to be very pale (gray skin), which makes her appearance somewhat demonic. She tried to wear Robin's uniform as seen in The Quest. When Mother Mae-Eye infiltrates the Tower and puts the Titans under her control, she turns Raven's blue cloak into a yellow Shirley Temple dress with matching bows in her hair, but her boots remain blue in color. Mother Mae-Eye then says, "Just because you're evil on the inside doesn't mean you can't look pretty on the outside." This outfit puts her a disadvantage fighting Jinx, contributing to the team's defeat by the H.I.V.E. Five. However, despite her demonic appearance, she is shown to be quite attractive and beautiful, as Adonis took a liking to her, and in the Teen Titans Go! issue The Great Race, Kid Flash considers her pretty and stops in the middle of the race to flirt with her. When she is in 'demonic' state a second pair of eyes appear where her eyebrows are. Personality and Traits Raven is one of the most mysterious characters throughout the series. She is quite, emotionless, studious, and sarcastic. She can always come up with a witty remark, specifically in reply to most of Teen Titans' antics and attempts at humor. Her appearance and attitude appears to be that of a typical modern goth female. However, as much as she may seem slightly distant and antisocial, producer Sam Register describes her as a "...dark character, but a character everyone can relate to. She's a recluse and sort of to herself. We thought that would be a good dynamic with the rest of the team. She does have a dark background in the comic." Robin also said that she is "the most hopeful person he has ever known." Raven is often portrayed as the most mature member of the group, often giving her own advice to the others about various subjects, and generally staying cool and calm, even in desperate situations. She is, however, also the most emotionally-restrained of the Titans, appearing secretive and distant; she initially does not allow any of her fellow Titans into her room and spends most of her time by herself, usually meditating or reading one of her numerous books. Even though she is serious and cautious about her emotions, just like she was trying to say to Doctor Light saying "don't come even closer." The reason for her emotional restraint is due to the adverse effects her emotions have on her powers. If her emotions become out of control, her powers can become erratic and spontaneous, becoming active without her will. In the course of the series, however, she gradually, if only slightly, seems to warm up to her teammates. As shown through her quick suspicion of Terra, it is difficult for Raven to build trust for anyone, and even more difficult to truly forgive if that trust was to be broken. In several instances throughout the show, contrary to her usual behavior, she does show more emotion — such as making "heart eyes" along with Starfire at the appearance of Aqualad (though this is mostly used for comedic effect). Furthermore, Raven is known to sometimes be shocked at trivial things. One occasion on which this happens is when Cyborg defeats Raven in a game of chess after installing the Maximum 7 in his brain. At this occasion her entire face and outfit turns white (also probably for comedic effect). She is also shocked at the sudden drop-in of Red X on the bus she is driving but quickly regains her monotone and determined stature when she realizes who it is. Another instance is when Raven, while playing a game of cards, comically gasps at the impressive sets of cards the rest of the Titans have in their disposal. She can lose her temper easily, most of the time, with Beast Boy. Despite her seemingly unfriendly attitude, Raven does indeed care greatly about the people she is attached to, as prominently displayed when she is put in charge of three children. Initially having little or no patience with Melvin, Timmy Tantrum, and Teether, Raven grows to love (or at least, enjoy) them, risking her own life to protect them from the Brotherhood of Evil, even calling them her kids. She also comes to regard the rest of the Titans as her closest friends and family. Finally, there are many instances where Raven is portrayed as the most understanding friend among the Titans. While seemingly uninterested towards Cyborg'sT-Car, Raven is ultimately the only one who approaches and comforts him, even going as far as to assist in rebuilding the destroyed car. Overall, Raven is not cold hearted, merely introverted, caring deeply about those close to her. Raven is often portrayed as the most insensitive and pessimistic member of the Titans, and she generally regards everything in a "black and white" manner. For example, when Beast Boy desperately asks Raven for words of comfort after their crushing defeat against the members of the H.I.V.E Academy, Raven tersely states that the Titans have to accept the situation, no matter how grave it is. She also reacts to Cyborg's leaving of the Titans with little to no resentment, stating that people come and go by. When Raven surrenders herself in to her demonic father Trigon in order to fulfill the prophecy that she thought she had no way to prevent, however, Raven also appeared to still have retained hope to a certain degree that the lord of evil could be stopped, as she forcibly injected each of her friends with a portion of her own power to shield them and give them one last chance to save the world. It is then ironic that it was what had motivated her to surrender nearly all hope that ultimately destroyed Trigon. After banishing away Trigon from her soul and from the world, Raven's personality seems to change for the better, as she grows to be less pessimistic and less anti-social. However, she still despises Beast Boy's corny jokes and enjoys reading in solitude, implying that her personality was not affected very much by her semi-demonic origin.Category:Female CharactersCategory:Worlds dividedCategory:In loveCategory:PrincessesCategory:EvilCategory:EvilishCategory:Female charactersCategory:Female characterCategory:DemonsCategory:Azarathian